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Aberdeen-Music Jukebox Jury


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Water Torture - Pillbox 

 
Whenever I've reviewed/critiqued something, I've always been careful to say something positive, even if I've had to look hard to find it.  Well, it obviously takes skill to create something this fast-slow/dense/complex.  I've never liked or understood music which seem to have lyrics but damned if I can make any of them out.  Might as well be instrumentals.  Specifically regarding this release, I like it better when it slows down and something more melodic struggles its way to the front (for example on "Rat").  The rest of it just has me scratching my head and going "eh?".  I suspect I'm just not meant to "get" this kind of stuff and that's my problem, not theirs.  It will make no difference to my life if I never hear this album again.  I found it hard work, and where's the fun in that?
 
This Will Destroy You - Another Language
 
My heart sank.  "Terrific", I thought to myself, "another opportunity for me to show how old and out of touch I am".  I don't get it.  It's delicate and pretty, but rather like a snowflake it melts too easily.  It's like being presented with a beautifully engineered, fragile Heath-Robinson device and I say "it's lovely.  What's it for?  What does it do?"  There's no answer, it merely exists.  I let the album wash over me and didn't realise that suddenly I was on track 6.  Normally I notice the transitions.  Track 7 made itself known, well, it cleared its throat then said very little after that.  I wanted to like it, but it gave me so little to go on.  Me listening to this is like being blindfolded and placed in an infinitely sized empty room, wandering around with arms outstretched, on a ultimately fruitless quest to find a wall or some kind of reference point from which to develop an understanding of my surroundings.
 
Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty
 
After drawing two blanks I really hoped I'd find some joy here.  I didn't.  It's so empty.  I don't mean sparse, I mean empty.  Like opening the fridge and finding nothing there, not even something you can grudgingly make a sandwich with when all you really want is a pie.  I'm sorry.  The voice sounds bored.  That's fine if it's juxtaposed with interesting stuff around it, I enjoy the contrast.  But bored sounding guy talking over not very interesting background is not good for me.
 
Seems that I care not for stuff that sounds like someone having their teeth drilled out with a mechanical hydra wielding a different power tool in every head, or delicate, spacious, sparse stuff that I acknowledge is there but offers insufficient reason for me to make its further acquaintance like the strangers in the street I walk by every day.  "Favourite" one?  Water Torture - because at least it kept me awake.
 
Sorry for lateness.  The reason I'm late is that I tried but I didn't like any of it and I feel bad for that.  It's a bad start to my participation in this excellent thread.  It must seem like I don't like music at all but I've been left with this aching feeling of "WTF?", like a joke I didn't get or a complex concept I just can't grasp.  I feel awful for writing all this.  I feel like I'm twice as old as I am, and that I am a bitter hater of all things.  I feel like deleting it but it's done now.
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I enjoyed reading everyone's reviews and liked the exercise of listening to 3 albums I wouldn't normally.

There are tons of possible themes but I'm happy with whatever is settled upon. I doubt there's to much risk of having heard all 3 before.

Themes:

- self titled albums

- albums beginning with a certain letter

- albums from 1999/2000/whatever year

- albums that make you dance/sing along/cry/happy/etc

- good album by a band you dislike normally

- first album you bought

- last album you bought

- best debut album

- best 2nd album

- albums that contain a certain word in the title

- albums you think noone will know of but you

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Water Torture - Pillbox 

 
Anyone familiar with my musical tastes won't be surprised to hear I don't normally listen to power violence, in fact I hadn't even heard of the genre until this thread. It would be nice to say I loved it and I could look forward to discovering more of the same but sadly that's not the case. It's hard for me to give this a fair comment because music like this just doesn't have anything for me. The vocals don't appeal, neither does the sound of the guitars nor the song writing style. Honestly I just found myself zoning out a bit while it was on and letting it slip into the background. I wouldn't say I hated it or have any real negative feelings about more, more that it doesn't inspire any positive feelings at all. 
 
This Will Destroy You - Another Language
 
Post rock is a genre I have heard of at least but it's not one I've ever got into. I generally find it boring on record, I'll admit I've enjoyed some live performances so it might be that I can connect more with this kind of music in that setting. Anyway listening to this at home was about as enjoyable as the Water Torture album. It didn't grab me at all. I often feel music like this is trying to deliver a big emotional punch but actually there's no depth there and it hits you like a floating feather rather than a killer punch. Like with the previous album I kind of feel awkward commenting on musical styles I know nothing about. It makes me feel like some angry old man complaining about the radio saying it all sounds the same. However I enjoyed the experience in some of listening to these, it at least made me think what it is that I do enjoy in music.
 
Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty
 
This is more my thing. I'd enjoyed their previous album and planned to listen to this anyway so I was happy for this to be picked. I think they are very talented guys who make some very interesting music. Having said that they haven't clicked with me in the same way they have with Murr. This like the previous one is an album I will listen to and think is great but might then not listen to again for a while. As much as I respect the music and find it interesting it doesn't quite excite me and make me want to listen to it on repeat over and over. 
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Sorry for lateness.  The reason I'm late is that I tried but I didn't like any of it and I feel bad for that.  It's a bad start to my participation in this excellent thread.  It must seem like I don't like music at all but I've been left with this aching feeling of "WTF?", like a joke I didn't get or a complex concept I just can't grasp.  I feel awful for writing all this.  I feel like I'm twice as old as I am, and that I am a bitter hater of all things.  I feel like deleting it but it's done now.

These are 3 pretty out there records. Not liking them isn't that unusual a view.

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I don't think anyone should feel bad for not liking something. I spent an awful long time thinking that I must be dumb as rocks because I dont enjoy classic literature that everyone else seems to revere. Tried and tried and tried with it, forced myself to slog through books that I was bored to tears with just so I could say I'd read them and not appear like a philistine. Eventually I just realised fuck it, it's not my thing, I have my own taste and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Now I read female-targeted erotic fiction every day and I'm pretty happy about it.

Edited by Loopy Racist
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